Clevis.



W. F. KARROW.

CLEVIS.

APPLICATION F|LEo1uNE18.1915.

1,173,000. Patented Feb. 22, 1916.

WILLIAM F. KARROW, OIEV SEYMOUR, WISCONSIN.

CLEVIS.

Application filed June 18, 1915.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, VILLIAM a citizen of the United States, residing at Seymour, in the county of' Outagamie and State ofi/Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clevises, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention appertains to improvements in draft connections or couplings, and has as an object the provision of a device of this character, by means of which a. swingletree may be connected to the draft member of a vehicle without resorting to the usual custom of boring holes in these members to accommodate pivot bolts. The weakening of these parts in the last-mentioned manner perhaps contributes F. KARROW,

most largely to many accidents to horse drawn vehicles at the present time, to say nothing of the inconveniences incident to breakage of the draft elements themselves, and obviously, the provision of a. coupling arrangement, which insures the application of draft in a way permitting freedom of pivotal connection yet without sacrificing strength of material, is a desideratum..

lVith the above and other objects in view, this invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts all as hereinafter more fully described, claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a fragmentary perspective view of vehicle draft members having my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a top plan View showing in dotted lines the pivotal movement of the member in operation. Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line M of Fig. 3, showing the base or pivot plate in plan.

V'Ihroughout the following detail description, and on the several figures of the drawing, similar parts are referred to by like reference characters.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral l designates a vehicle draft member which may be the usual cross bar of a single draft vehicle or may represent the doubletree of a double draft vehicle.

The reference character 2 designates the swingletree which is attached to the member l in a manner to provide for free pivotal swinging action of said swingletree during draft of the vehicle and to which, of course, the traces of the harness are adapted Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 22, i916.

Serial No. 34,877.

to be connected. The swingletree 2 carries at its central portion the clip member 3, which member, as will be noted from Fig. 3 ofthe drawing, is U-shaped in cross section, comprising preferably strap metal bent back upon itself with its ends in spaced relation, the closed end of the clip being disposed at the front of this member. The clip of this construction is of suliiciently rigid material to remain in place under ordinary usage owing to the clamping of the strap member upon the swingletree, but it is preferable to provide a screw or similar fastening element t at the top to prevent likelihood of displacement of said clip from use of the device. The swingletree 2 is superposed upon the draft member l, which member carries a similarly formed clip 5, but the latter clip is reversely positioned upon its carrying member with respect to the disposition of the clip 3. Therefore, the closed end of the clip is located at the rear of the draft member l.

The clip 3 is pivotally connected to the clip 5 by means of a pivot 6, the clip members being preferably washered therebetween as indicated at 7. In addition to this pivotal connection just described, the clip member 3 is attached or secured to the clip member 5 by means of the bolt 8 which passes loosely through its spaced ends at the rea-r of the swingletree and through one end of the pivot or base plate 9, said base plate being connected at its other end to the spaced ends of the clip 5 by means of the pivot bolt 10. It will now be apparent that the swingletree moves freely upon its pivot 6 and at the same time swings on the pivot l0 of the base plate 9 so that it may assume the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 at either side of a line passing through the common pivot centers. The swinging movement may be said to be limited by the divergence from coincident arcs of circles described by the radius line equivalent in length to the distance between the pivot 6 and the bolt 8 and the radius line equivalent to the distance between the pivot 10 of the base plate 9 and the bolt 8, both said members 8 and l0 being loosely seated in the clip and plate openings.

The invention may be said to possess two main distinct advantages, first, that incident to the use of reversely positioned clips whereby the draft falls against the closed end of each and, secondly, that incident to Vthe use 0f a clevis or coupling so attached to the draft elements as to provide for proper operation of the parts without necessitating the use of pivot members passing through said parts and thereby weakening the same. The function of the base plate 9, it will be apparent, is to brace the clip members against application of entire draft strain upon the pivot member 6 on which pivot the swingletree swings.

Having thus described my invention, what claim as new is:

l. The combination with a vehicle draft member and a superposed swingletree, 0f a clevis comprising reversely disposed clip members for said swingletree and draft member, a connection between the contiguous sides of said clip members, and a pivot member connected at one end to the swingletree clip in rear of the'swingletree and at its other end to the vehicle draft member clip in front of said draft member.

2. The combination with a vehicle draft bar and a swingletree connected therewith, of a clevis comprising a clip for each of said parts, a pivot connection between the clips, brace means, a pivotal connection intermediate one end thereof and the clip of the draft member on which said brace means is adapted to swing, and a pivot bolt connectinr the other end of the brace means to the swingletree clip.

3. The combination with a vehicle draft bar and a superposed swingletree attached thereto, of a clevis for connecting said parts comprising` a pair of clips, a brace plate, a pivotal connection for said plate at one side of the vehicle draft bar clip, and connecting means between the other endV of said brace plate and the swingletree clip located at the opposite side of the draft b ar clip. .e

4. The combination with a vehicle draft bar and a superposed swingletree attached thereto, of a clevis consisting of a U-shaped clip surrounding the vehicle draft bar and having its closed end in rear of said bar, and a similarly shaped clip surrounding the swingletree and reversely positioned with respect to the first-mentioned clip, a pivotal connection between the contiguous faces 0 said clips7 a base plate beneath the vehicle draft bar clip, a connecting member for the ends of the draft bar clip to which the base plate is pivotally attached, and a connecting member for the spaced ends of the swinglei tree clip to which the base plate is pivotally connected at its other end. In testimony whereof Iaffix my signature.

VILLIAW F. KARROW.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 6., 

